Page "Archaeoastronomy" Paragraph 21

Euan MacKie has supported Thom's analysis, to which he added an archaeological context by comparing Neolithic Britain to the Mayan civilization to argue for a stratified society in this period.

To test his ideas he conducted a couple of excavations at proposed prehistoric observatories in Scotland.

Kintraw is a site notable for its four-meter high standing stone.

Thom proposed that this was a foresight to a point on the distant horizon between Beinn Shianaidh and Beinn o ' Chaolias on Jura.

This, Thom argued, was a notch on the horizon where a double sunset would occur at midwinter.

However, from ground level, this sunset would be obscured by a ridge in the landscape, and the viewer would need to be raised by two meters: another observation platform was needed.

This was identified across a gorge where a platform was formed from small stones.

The lack of artifacts caused concern for some archaeologists and the petrofabric analysis was inconclusive, but further research at Maes Howe and on the Bush Barrow Lozenge led MacKie to conclude that while the term ' science ' may be anachronistic, Thom was broadly correct upon the subject of high-accuracy alignments.